The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
by Naomi S. Goldson
Summary: A collection of oneshots and drabbles about the Christmas season. R&R! Chapter 3: No one wants to be alone on Christmas Eve - that was a fact she was sure of. That's probably why she felt so lonely, sitting alone on Christmas Eve, without even her husband to pass the time with.
1. Christmas Angels

_Christmas 2009_

"Mummy!" screeched a small, high pitched voice, followed by the sound of bare feet pattering down the hallway of shell cottage. Fleur sighed, putting down her book and mentally preparing herself for her children to come bursting into the room.

And burst they did. Dominique came running in, her strawberry blonde curls flying wildly around her full face. In her hands she held a pair of angel wings – angel wings that happened to belong to her elder sister, Victoire. The unhappy wing owner came in a moment later, her blonde hair mussed and a frown gracing her face. Hardly had the two girls entered when Louis stumbled in, his chubby legs pumping as fast as possible as he struggled to keep up with his elder sisters. He was the only one of the three who seemed wholly delighted in the situation as he plopped cheerfully to the floor, giggling and waving at his mother.

"Mummy, Dom took my angel wings," Victoire complained, sticking out her lower lip in a pronounced frown.

"Toire is always the angel! Mummy, I wanna be the angel!" Dominique squealed, holding the angels in a vice like grip as Victoire lunged for them.

"You're gonna break them, Dom!" Victoire said angrily. "Don't break my angel wings!"

"But I want them!" Dominique screamed, attempting to twist away. Unfortunately, Dominique's five year old self was no match for Victoire's nine year old body and both tumbled to the floor. Louis let out a cry of laughter and rocked backwards, falling onto a pillow.

"Girls, calm down, s'il vous plaît," Fleur said, her tone commanding. "Why don't you both be ze angel?"

"But we only have my wings!" Victoire said, standing up and placing a hand on her hip. She fixed an odd little expression on her face, as if what she was saying was the most obvious thing in the world, before continuing, "Mummy, they're _my_ wings, not Dom's, so I'm the angel!"

"Give me ze wings," Fleur said tiredly, holding out a hand for the glittery and slightly crushed wings that Dominique was lying on.

"But –" Dominique began.

"Give zem to me," Fleur repeated, leveling a harsh look at her younger daughter. Dominique sniffled and handed the wings over. Victoire tried to take them from her mother, but Fleur held them out of reach. "Non, ma Cherie," Fleur said, turning her eyes to her other daughter. "You are nine years old, you should know better."

"Everyone takes my things," Victoire said, her eyes tearing. "They took Teddy to Hogwarts without me, Dominique took my wings, Louis took my broom – it's not fair, mummy!"

"Teddy will be 'ome soon, Victoire," Fleur said softly, "and then you will be able to see 'im again, non?"

"But what if he forgot me?" Victoire asked in a watery voice.

"Teddy will not forget you," Fleur said firmly. "Do not worry. Now, as for who will be ze angel –"

"Me, mummy, it's my turn!" Dominique said, raising her hand and bouncing on her toes.

"Wait, Dominique," Fleur said. She pulled out her wand and tapped the wings. They split so there were two identical pairs of angel wings. Smiling, she held them out to the girls. "You can both be Christmas angels," she said.

"Yay!" Dominique said, putting on her wings and running around the room, leaping off of a chair and flapping her arms frantically. "Look, mummy! Mummy! I can fly, mummy!"

"Oui, Dominique, I see you," Fleur said, laughing. Victoire took her wings as well, slipping them on and observing herself in the mirror on the wall.

"Do you think Teddy will like my wings, maman?" she asked, as if weighing the matter in her head.

"I think Teddy will love zem," Fleur replied. "Now, why don't you all run along and play since you don't have to argue over who ze angel is anymore?"

"Ok! Come on, Toire!" Dominique cried, grabbing Victoire's hand and dragging her from the room.

"Mama?"

Fleur looked down, having completely forgotten that her son was also in the room. She smiled and picked him up. "What do you need, Louis?"

"Angel, too, mama?" Louis asked, pointing at his chest. Fleur laughed and conjured a pair of sparkly pink wings like the girls had, fixing them to the back of his shirt and setting him down. Louis gurgled excitedly and ran from the room. Perhaps, she thought hopefully, they wouldn't have another problem for some time and she would be able to make them supper in peace. She stood and began to make her way towards the kitchen, humming cheerfully until,

"Mummy!"

She should have known better.

**A/N: This is the first in a collection of drabbles/oneshots. Some will be directly related, others not - you don't have to read one to understand another, but they all take place in the same universe (my head!canon universe, of course!).**

**Read/Review/Critique/Ignore. Whatever floats your boat!**

**(For Christmas Boot Camp: Angels)**

**-Naomi**


	2. Not Quite Spot On

_Christmastime, 2015_

Ginny had a feeling it wouldn't turn out well before it had even begun. And yet, being the incredibly stubborn woman that she was, she still made the effort.

"Sit down, James," she said, trying to push the hyper eleven year old into a chair. "Lily, stop poking your brother." Lily looked up with wide, innocent eyes.

"But James took my feathers, mummy," Lily complained, pointing at James accusatorily.

"Poke him later then," Ginny amended. Mollified, Lily sat down on the floor by James's feet. Albus entered the room sporting a very sour look, plopping into a chair as far from James as possible before leveling a glare at his cocky elder brother.

"Mum, Al is annoying me," James said matter-of-factly.

"I didn't say anything," snapped Albus.

"You talking just now was annoying, though."

"Give me my feathers, James."

"You're such a prat!"

"You're an annoying baby!"

"Feathers!"

"Stop touching me!"

"You touched me first!"

"Feathers!"

"Did not! That was Lily!"

"I want my feathers!"

"That was so you!"

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"Shut up!" Ginny yelled, burying her face in her hands. "Merlin, can't you get along for just five minutes?"

"Only if Al's not around," James replied, smirking. Albus opened his mouth to reply, but was quickly cut off by his mother screaming,

"Enough!"

Perhaps it was the deranged look on her face. Or maybe their knowledge that one shouldn't disobey mother when she looked cross. Maybe it was a gene that kicked in when Weasley mothers were angry at their children, or perhaps it was just that the sheer volume of her cry inspired such terror into her children that none of them dared to speak. Whatever it was, Ginny's exasperated cry certainly quieted her argumentative children.

"We're making Christmas cards and you're going to like it," Ginny said, glaring at each child in turn as if daring them to disagree. She dropped a stack of blank parchment onto the table beside the ink and quills she had earlier laid out. Lily immediately snatched a piece and began working, humming merrily as she did so. Albus moodily grabbed a couple supplies, huddling up in his chair to work on his little project. James also grabbed a bottle of ink, turning it over in his hand and watching it rush to the bottom over and over. When he caught his mother's reproachful eye, however, he set it down and began scrawling a Christmas card as well. "Better," she growled.

"Can we have dinner first?" Albus asked.

"After you make cards, you can have dinner," Ginny said shortly.

"It'll be cold," Albus whined.

"Draw fast then," suggested Ginny, looking at his blank paper.

"Cold soup is gross," Albus grumbled, drawing a few squiggly lines on the page.

After keeping an eye on their work for a couple minutes, Ginny rose and made her way to the kitchen, assuming she could get a glass of water and return before they could get into any more mischief. Unfortunately, she had hardly pulled a glass from the cupboard when she heard glass break, a loud thump, a boy's aggravated cry, and then the sound of feet pattering down the hall in her direction. She turned to face Albus, who came running in with his now purple parchment held aloft.

"James dumped the ink on my card," he informed her, offering her the sticky, dripping object.

Ginny put a hand on her forehead and closed her eyes. "Throw it away and start over, then," she suggested.

"He'll just do it again!" Albus cried. "He always does stuff like that!"

"Tell him to stop," she said as she filled the cup.

"He won't!"

"He'd better."

"But he won't!"

"James, come here!" Ginny called.

"I'm working right now, mum," said James's voice, floating in from his place in the dining room.

"Now," Ginny commanded. She heard her son sigh dramatically as he stood and entered as well, a folded piece of parchment in his hand.

"It's done anyhow," he said, handing it to her. She took the page, confused as to how finished a card that had nothing drawn on the cover could be. She opened it up, fearing the worst, and found an enormous spotted circle on the inside with the words 'Happy Christmas' written messily in the corner.

"What is this?" she asked.

"A card for Uncle Charlie," he replied smugly. "It's a dragon egg, see?"

"Dragon eggs for Christmas? Really, James, you couldn't put any more effort into this?" Ginny queried exasperatedly.

"Mummy! Mummy, mum, mum, mum, MUM! Look what I made!" shrieked Lily, running into the room. Her parchment was taped to her face and covered in what looked like hundreds of pink and purple feathers. Two holes had been poked in it and through them, Ginny could see Lily's brown eyes peering through, bright and full of pride at her creation. "I made a feathered mask, mummy!"

"I can see that," Ginny said, "but what about a Christmas card?"

"But I wanted to make a mask, not a card," Lily said simply, as though this explanation was clearly good enough for anyone to understand.

"We're making cards! Christmas cards, not dragons, masks, or soggy parchment!" Ginny cried, spilling her water onto Albus's already destroyed page and soaking his shirt sleeves.

"Mum!" he cried, throwing the page in the air. James grabbed it and threw it out the open window with an evil cackle, flashing Albus a devilish look. "Did you just see that? Mum, he threw my paper out!"

"It was already ruined," James said.

"So?!"

"It doesn't matter!"

"I wanted to make a mask!"

"It does too matter! It was mine!"

"Covered in my ink!"

"I love my feathers! I'm a bird now!"

"It was mum's ink, not yours!"

"Or a fairy! I'm a fairy!"

"Practically mine, you know."

"That's not true!"

"Is too!"

"I can be Aunt Luna! Aunt Luna loves feathers, too!"

"You're such a prat!"

"Can't you think of any better word than prat?"

"Yes, but you can't."

"Yes, I can!"

"Liar!"

Ginny collapsed onto the chair behind her while the three Potter children snapped away at each other, soon dissolving into a chaotic fist fight over a stray feather that tickled Albus's nose as Lily danced around. They ran from the room, screaming and throwing punches and yelling childlike obscenities at each other, and Ginny did nothing to stop the bunch, too exhausted to try any longer at such an obviously useless cause.

No one got a Christmas card from the Potters that year.

**A/N: Personally, I found this to be amusing and appropriate for a Throwback Thursday moment.**

**(Christmas Boot Camp: Cards)**

**(5 Christmas Keys Competition: feathered mask, open window, cold soup, dragon egg, blank parchment)**

**R&R? :)**

**-Naomi**


	3. Love Actually

_Christmas 2003_

No one wanted to be alone on Christmas Eve – that was a fact, wasn't it? Well, perhaps a couple lonely old geezers who didn't understand that company was a good thing; those natural born Scrooges that wander through life without a friend. Unfortunately, Audrey was not a lonely old geezer who desired no friends. Audrey enjoyed company almost more than anything. Any company was fine, be it her parents, cousins, friends, strangers… most of all, of course, her new husband. Percy was nothing like her, but that didn't faze Audrey. He loved her and she loved him – that was the end of that argument.

It was only natural that she wished for his company on Christmas Eve. They had married only two months previous and their first Christmas as a married couple was supposed to be special. She had made plans for the pair of them to have the most wonderful time imaginable. But of course, he'd gotten a letter saying that he was required to be out of town until Christmas morning for urgent business. And Audrey knew that no matter how important she was to her husband, work was first.

And so it was that Audrey was alone on Christmas Eve, feeling more miserable than she'd ever felt before.

She flipped the television on, but only a couple fuzzy stations showed up on her cheap set. It was a belated wedding gift from a great aunt, or some other relative. Apparently, they'd forgotten about the wedding until mid-November and gone dumpster diving to find a present. She was grateful of course – the lonely hours at home while Percy worked were cut shorter by this small item. But it wasn't quite enough that night.

She gazed wistfully at the calendar. She'd gotten carried away this month and written all over it, though this day in particular was particularly insane. She'd scribbled carelessly all over the box about a new movie, _Love Actually_, scheduled to be released that day. She and Percy were going to go. They always went and saw a Christmas movie at the Muggle theatre they'd met in on Christmas Eve as a tradition of sorts. Not an announced tradition, but more of a silent agreement. They'd been doing so for five years, and this one year – the year they had married – would be the end.

Audrey stood up from her seat on the sofa abruptly, giving herself mental shake. It was Christmas Eve; she ought not to be so dreary. Looking about the sparsely decorated flat, she determined it would be best to add a little Christmas cheer to the place. She walked stiffly to the closet, humming the music that played in the commercials for _Love Actually_. It looked like a splendid movie – to her, of course. Audrey had always been one for happy somewhat girly films, and she considered herself lucky enough to have found a guy who put up with (perhaps even enjoyed) them as much as herself. Once he got past the triviality of movies in general, of course.

Audrey cursed herself internally. She shouldn't be complaining. "Don't act like a child," she scolded herself quietly.

She spent a very long half hour milling about uselessly, trying to get her mind off of her lonely state, until she decided on a cure. It wouldn't be the same, going without him, but she couldn't very well sit around like this all night. Her mind made up, Audrey grabbed her coat and slipped it on before stepping into her trainers and very deliberately placing a hat on her head. Nodding once at her reflection, she grabbed her wallet and opened the door.

Standing there was none other than her husband, holding a bouquet of flowers and smiling a bit shyly. "Percy?" she said, her brow furrowed in confusion. "What are you doing home?"

"I may be the worst husband to ever set foot on the earth," Percy answered, "but perhaps not quite so terrible that I would miss Christmas Eve with my wife."

"You were in Sweden, Percy," Audrey said. "I talked to you not an hour ago! How did you get back?"

"Magic," he replied, smiling wryly. Audrey blushed – she still had a hard time remembering she was married to a wizard (and a somewhat famous one at that); she wasn't sure she would ever quite adjust, no matter how well he said she fit with his family and friends.

"Thank you for coming home," she said quietly.

"Are you dressed to go out for any reason?" he asked bluntly, looking at her hat and coat. Audrey looked down and blushed again.

"I figured if I was going to be home alone tonight then I might as well go see a film," she answered in what she hoped was an off-hand manner. "You know, I was going to see _Love Actually_ down at the theatre."

"I suppose you mean the nine o'clock showing," Percy said, "and possibly sit in the exact center seat?" As he spoke, he pulled something from his pocket: two tickets. A closer look revealed they were two tickets to the nine o'clock showing of _Love Actually_ at the theatre – _their_ theatre – with seats in the exact center, where they always sat. She flung herself at him, her mouth crashing onto his as she wrapped her arms around his neck, feeling like the giddy teenage girl she had long since left in the past. Percy seemed surprised, but not at all displeased. The two held each other close, comfortable in the embrace despite their odd placement in the doorway of their flat. When they finally broke apart, they smiled at each other in silence.

"We don't want to be late, come on," Percy said, pulling her out and shutting the door. She grabbed his hand and held it tightly, leaning her head on his shoulder.

"I love you, you know that?" she murmured.

"I love you, too," he replied, pressing a light kiss to the top of her head. And then they began the short walk to _their_ theatre – not anyone's but theirs – to spend Christmas Eve together. Because no one wants to be alone on Christmas.

**A/N: I know Love Actually came out in November, but for the sake of this oneshot, it was December, okay?!**

**Okay.**

**(Christmas Boot Camp: Tradition)**

**(Holiday Movie Competition: Love Actually)**

**(Anything Goes Holiday Challenge)**

**-Naomi**


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